I have no idea – never heard the suggestion that it is a copy. It serves no purpose where it currently is, so I quite believe that it is left over from the demolition of Old St Peter’s. But do you know something that makes you think it’s a modern replica?

It’s just that the artists above (the first two, at least) clearly aren’t struggling to accurately represent the features of the fountain and they show it to have perfect egg shape/oval symmetry, whereas the pine cone is, well, pine cone shaped.

Good point, Roger. Both fish and peacock are hieroglyphs in pre-Christian traditions related to metalwork, traceable to Samarra bowls and ligatured fish artifacts of Sumerian stone troughs: aya, ayo ‘fish’ Rebus: ayo ‘iron’ (Gujarati); ayas ‘metal’ (Rigveda) maraka ‘peacock’ Rebus: marakaka loha ‘copper alloy, calcining metal’. The other hieroglyph is pine-cone: kaNDe ‘pine cone’ Rebus: kaNDa ‘metalware’; kANDa ‘water’. It appears that the idea of immortality is linked to the durability of metalwork. In Kota language a gloss for smithy is kole.l The same gloss denotes ‘temple’. The idea of the temple seems to have roots in archaeometalurgy? The large pair of bronze peacocks and the large bronze pine cone were present in front of the Isis temple in Pompeii (according to the drawings of 16th cent.)? What is the evidence for assuming the peacocks to be from Hadrian’s mausoleum?

Yes, indeed, Roger. Use of two images in conjunction: pine cone & peacock. Locus: in front of Temple of Isis, divinity of seafarers. Inference: seafaring merchants trading in metals created the structure in front of the temple, while advertising their wares to the devotees:)– What were the objects called by the creators? The two bronze objects are just stunning; should be subjected to archaeometallurgical evaluation.